Year 1- Separated
by secretimelady
Summary: Devon is given the challenge of his life when his brother dies and his brother's wife goes insane because of it. That's right, he has to raise their two children on his own. Calamity ensues as the oldest goes to a school for spies. This story is also on archiveofourown and is still my story.
1. Prologue

Cecelia heard a dull thud and her mother screaming. Her green eyes shot open and she jumped out of bed, running to her parents' bedroom. The sight would scar her forever. Her father was lying on the ground and he wasn't moving, not even to breathe while her mother was kneeling by him, sobbing. "Dad!" Cecelia cried as she moved next to her mother. "Dad, please, wake up!" She cried as she tried nudging him awake as she had so many times before. Her tears were now flowing openly. "Mom, you have to call 911. You're the only one that saw what happened. I'll wake up Mattie." She said, already getting up to wake her younger brother. "Okay, Cici." Her mother agreed, also getting up. Cici heard her mother calling and she picked her brother up out of his crib. "Cici? What happening?" He asked in his limited vocabulary. "Dad's gone to the moon. He won't be coming back." She said, using the age old lie. "Why he not come back?" Mattie asked. "You know how he sometimes has to work really late?" She asked her brother who nodded. "It's just the job that they're having him do." Cici lied. Mattie nodded, satisfied.

Before long, they were ushered out of the house by police. "Do you know how your father died?" An officer asked Cici while she was holding her brother. "Shh!" She hissed, gesturing to her brother who was only just barely awake. It only took a few minutes more for Mattie to fall asleep. "No, I don't know how my father died. I just woke up when I heard a thud and my mom screaming." Cici explained. The officer nodded and moved away. Cici carried her brother over to where their mother was sitting in the back of an ambulance, an orange shock blanket draped around her shoulders. "Mom? Are you okay?" Cici asked. She didn't get an answer, which surprised her. An ambulance attendant explained that her mother had gone into shock and that she'd be taken somewhere that they could help, but that Cici and Mattie needed someplace else to stay. "Well, there's our uncle, our dad's brother. His name is Devon Miles. But we haven't seen him in a while." Cici said. The ambulance attendant laughed a bit. "That's okay." He said. The two children were taken to an office in police headquarters where they'd stay until their uncle came for them. A man made to call Devon then, but Cici protested. "It's 2 in the morning. He's probably asleep." The agent agreed to call Devon the next morning and the exhausted six year old fell asleep.

The next morning began as any other did for Devon Miles. He got up, got dressed and was about to have breakfast when the phone rang. Puzzled, he answered it. A man on the other end informed him of the tragic death of his younger brother and the need for someone to take care of Cecelia and Matthew. Devon, of course, agreed and it was agreed that he would be in Phoenix to pick the kids up as soon as possible.

Two hours later, he was disembarking the plane and had hailed a taxi to the police headquarters. Devon was directed to an office in the back and saw two children, asleep. The girl, who was 6 if he remembered correctly, had straight blonde hair that fell just past her shoulders and tan skin from playing outside. The boy, who was 3, was just as tan and had the same shade of blonde hair as his sister, though his was much shorter. They were both wearing pajamas that looked very wrinkled. "You're Devon Miles, right?" The police officer in charge asked. In response, Devon nodded. "How long has it been since you've seen these kids?" The officer asked. "It's been four years since I've seen Cecelia and I haven't actually met Matthew." Devon answered. The officer nodded and took this down. He had Devon fill out some paperwork and prove that he really was Devon Miles before Devon could take the kids home.

When they got into the room, Cici was doing a Sudoku puzzle and half humming to her brother who was trying to balance on one foot. Just as he was about to fall, Cici stuck one leg out and caught him. "Aha!" She exclaimed triumphantly. "What, sis?" Mattie asked. "I finished the puzzle." She explained, ruffling the boy's hair. Devon cleared his throat, alerting the children to his presence. "Uncle Devon!" Cici exclaimed, rushing over and throwing her arms around her uncle's legs. He awkwardly patted her back and the officer in charge laughed a bit and muttered something about Devon not knowing what he was getting himself into.

"Devon took them to their house where he had them pack a suitcase of clothes and change into clean clothes while they were at it. Not surprisingly, Cici was done first and had to check Mattie's suitcase. She pushed him out of his bedroom and started packing for him. When she came out a few minutes later, Mattie began to balk about not having his special teddy bear, so Cici packed a bag with some things that she knew that she couldn't live without and told Mattie to do the same. After she inspected his bag (she had to remove several sandwiches and some other food) she talked to the neighbor woman about taking care of the house while they were away, because no one knew how long their mother would be in the mental hospital. The neighbor woman agreed and the small group of Miles' went to the airport and LA.

As it turned out, Devon had a large house with plenty of room for raising two relatively young children, even if they were both scarily mature. For the first few weeks, Mattie and Cici shared a room and bed while a more suitable bed was being set up for Mattie. Over the course of the next six months, both bedrooms were transformed from stark, boring bedrooms into places that reflected both children's tastes.

It wasn't long before Devon needed someone to watch the children while he was at work, so he took them over to the mansion of some friends of his. Their mansion was about the same size as Wilton Knight's and they had three children. Twins, the same age as Cici and a girl that was Mattie's age. When he introduced the children, Cici was surprisingly shy, but Rory's outgoing personality and confidence had him, Cici and Rory's twin sister Sage getting on like a house on fire. Mattie, meanwhile, was talking with Melody, the youngest girl, with some trepidation. After all, girls had cooties. It wasn't until 20 minutes later when Cici patiently explained that there were no such things when he finally played happily with Melody.


	2. Can't Cici Just Have a Normal Day?

"Happy Birthday Cici!" Mattie exclaimed as he jumped on his older sister's bed, effectively waking her up. "Five more minutes." The eleven year moaned as she covered her head with her pillow.  
It was at that point that Devon came in. "Mattie, leave your sister alone. If she wants to miss out on french toast and sausage, that's her decision." Devon said. It took Cici all of about five seconds to be at the breakfast table where there was, indeed, french toast and sausage waiting.  
After breakfast was eaten at a semi-reasonable pace, Cici and Mattie headed up to their rooms to change. Over the past five years, Cici's room had changed from stark white walls and sheets, no wall decorations and a bookshelf full of books that were far too advanced for her (according to Devon) to light blue walls and matching sheets, a desk, several photos of different adventures that Cici and Sage had gone on as well as a few others, lots of quotes that were painted right on the walls courtesy of Cici and the golden paint that could be found sitting on top of the dresser and a bookshelf that held many mysteries and maybe one or two chemistry books. Also, Devon had decided that she needed a full length mirror, so that was standing alone by her door.  
She changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a tight fitting t-shirt and then brushed her hair. Cici went downstairs and checked the mail. "Uncle Devon, Uncle Devon, Uncle Devon, wrong address, Uncle Devon, me?" She muttered. It was from an address in New York according to the return address. "Hangleton Academy." She whispered, tracing the coat of arms. It was a rabbit on a shield with the motto "love thy neighbor. She gave the stack of mail to Devon, except the letter from Hangleton Academy. "What is that, Cici?" Devon asked. "I don't know. It just came in the mail. It's addressed to me." Cici answered, looking confused. Devon handed her the letter opener and she slit the letter open, not expecting Mattie to grab the letter from her hand and run back to his bedroom. Mattie closed and locked the door, causing Cici to become very angry. "Matthew Miles, open that door or so help me, I will break it down." She threatened seriously. When the door didn't open, she got onto her toes and looked at her uncle. "A little help here?" She asked him. He reached above her and grabbed what she was trying to. It was a wooden skewer that worked perfectly to unlock the doors in the house. In a matter of seconds, Cici had the door open and had tackled her little brother, preventing him from attempting to hide the envelope.  
When Cici took a closer look at the crest, she was able to decipher what the crest meant. It was black and yellow, which meant reliability and generosity while the shape of the shield and the square in the center indicated honor. Even the rabbit meant peace loving. Cici made sure that her brother was in his room and proceeded to tie his door shut.  
With that done, Cici took out the main piece of paper. "Ms. Miles, we are pleased to welcome you to Hangleton Academy. While you're here, you will definitely consider us home! When you arrive, you will be given your uniform, dormitory assignment and schedule. If you have any questions, our staff rep is available to call at ***-***-****." Cici read. Devon frowned and asked for the paper, which Cici handed him. While her uncle was looking at the letter, Cici pulled out the brochure. It featured a school building that had the motto 'Love thy neighbor' in the gates. Cici gagged in mild disgust. On the next page there were student pictures, the girls wearing button up white shirts and black and red plaid skirts with a long red bow in place of a tie while the boys wore a white button up shirt with a red tie under a red and black sweater vest with black dress pants.  
"Cici, you forgot to mention that your parents had already paid tuition." Devon said, looking at the other pages in the envelope. "So, I'm going, then?" Cici asked. Devon nodded with certainty. "There's no point in wasting eight years of boarding school that's already been paid for. I honestly don't want to think how much it would cost for you to go if your parents hadn't already taken care of it." Devon said. Cici nodded in agreement. "If you look, there's even a private plane that is exclusively for Hangleton Academy students leaving from the LA airport at 6:30 a.m. on September 1st." Cici said, reading from the brochure.


	3. Not Your Ordinary School

On September 1st, Mattie was in tears about the thought of his big sister leaving. "I promise I'll be back for Christmas." Cici promised, bending down to hug her little brother. She straightened and looked at her uncle. "Are you ready to go?" He asked. Cici nodded and looked at Michael and Bonnie who were there to say goodbye as well. She hugged them both and looked very serious. Cici turned to Michael. "I'd better be hearing news of you asking her out before I get back." She said. Before Michael or Bonnie could tell her off, she jumped into the car.  
When they arrived at the airport, Cici slapped a hand to her head. "I'm an idiot and a horrible best friend!" She cried. Devon immediately realized the problem. "You forgot to go say goodbye to Sage and Rory, didn't you?" He asked quietly. She nodded and looked to be almost in tears. Unfortunately, it was already 6:00, too late for them to go back. Imagine their surprise, however, when they Sage, Rory and their father Jack O'Neil at the same gate that they were supposed to be at. "Cici!" Sage squealed, throwing her arms around her best friend's neck. "Sage. Need. Air." Cici gasped as her friend accidentally strangled her. Even as Sage let go of Cici's neck, they both began laughing. Jack checked his watch and nearly choked on his coffee. "Jeez! We need to get you kids on the plane!" He said, already taking his daughter's suitcase for her. "Thanks, dad." Sage said as she carried her still gasping friend's suitcase.  
They got underway right on time. As it turned out, it was only the three of them on the plane that was actually first class. "So what do you think Hangleton Academy's going to be like?" Cici asked her friends. "I bet the food'll be great." Sage said sarcastically. "Do you mean great or better than cafeteria food? Because if it's edible, it's better than cafeteria food." Rory cracked. All three of them enjoyed a good laugh over that. A flight attendant approached the three of them and handed them a voucher. "What's this?" Sage asked. "It's a voucher for extra credit. We need to know now so the proper adjustments can be made." The flight attendant answered.  
The voucher offered extra credit in exchange for a lot of work around the school. Cici shrugged and agreed, as did the twins. "Long hours, little payoff? Sounds like the work my uncle does." She joked as she handed the voucher to the flight attendant. Unseen to the pre-teens, the flight attendant radioed the agreement of all three ahead. There was a lot of scheduling to be done.  
When the plane touched down eight hours and three time zones later, resulting in the local time being 5:30 in the evening, the trio was pulled away from the massive throng of students to join seven other students. They were being led by a woman who appeared to be in her early 40's, but her dark brown hair was not close to losing its color. "I'm Julia Halvorsen, the headmistress of Artemis Girl's Academy, the female half of Archer Academy." She introduced. "Um, ma'm. I think you've made a mistake. We were supposed to be going to Hangleton Academy." One of the boys said. It was then that Cici noticed that there were five boys and five girls. "Ah, yes. I apologize for that little bit of trickery, but it was necessary. You see, no one, not even your parents can know what we do here. We train students in the fine art of industrial espionage, all funded by the government. In other words, we train spies." She explained.  
She led them to a house on the grounds that was very nice. "Ladies, this is your dorm. Now, take a seat." Headmistress Halvorsen said after she led them through the house and into the dining room. She passed out a contract that all ten students signed after reading carefully. Headmistress Halvorsen looked over them all and smiled, apparently satisfied. She gave the students a tour of the house, assuring the boys that their dorm was identical. On the main floor, there was a living room, kitchen dining room and gym. The second floor had the bedrooms, the bathroom and the private library. In the basement, there was a panic room, weapons testing area (Sage, Rory and Cici were ecstatic), and a huge wardrobe that took up half of the spacious basement.  
After the tour of the grounds, they were taken to a room that the headmistress had to slide her ID to get in to. "If you'll recall, your contracts stated that you got surgical eye and ear implants. These are typically only given to students who have graduated, but I know we can expect great things from you ten, and you'll need them. The process is very simple and you'll be walking around in an hour or two." Headmistress Halvorsen said as the students were all injected with a sedative.  
Two hours later, all ten students were awake and surprisingly not in pain. The headmistress explained that the eye implants allowed for infa-red and night vision. The ear implant was basically a glorified walkie talkie. By running a finger along their right ear canal, the students could all feel a small bump that was their com-link. "You'll all need to come up with code names for yourselves and memorize them." Headmistress Halvorsen said. She handed the students the uniforms that they had all seen in the brochure. "You can keep these. The actual uniform is a white button up shirt, a black skirt for ladies, black pants for the gentlemen and the red ribbon and tie actually stays the same. Although, there are black coats that have the actual school crest on them. However, you won't be wearing the normal uniform that often. Because you're prefects and defenders of the school, you all get black cargo pants, a black shirt, black shoes and a black head covering. The goal is that once you have the head coverings on, you won't be able to tell who you are." The headmistress explained. "Put the false uniform on so we can take a picture for your false ID. Your parents will likely want to see them." The headmistress ordered. The students all hurried to comply, all of them turning their backs on each other to change.  
Once they had all taken pictures, the headmistress gave them all gun holsters and pistols. Actual pistols. "Your patrols are important. Always keep these on you, no matter what you're doing. Normal students have one P.E. class and one class for weapons training. In place of these, you will each be taking two patrols per day. As prefects, you outrank almost everyone in the school, but that doesn't mean that you can go around breaking all the rules yourself. Now, the com-links are all on the same frequency, so if any one prefect requires help, regardless of school, you are excused from class to help. Merely explain to the teacher that it is prefect duties. You will need to elect a leader, and that leader will pick a second in command. However, that can wait until morning. Also, that's in your teams, that is, your genders. Class doesn't start until Monday, after all. Now, run along. Dinner begins in five minutes and that's when Headmaster Jared Alton and I will introduce you as the prefects. The Archer Hall." She called as they began running in the directions of the appointed room.  
The ten prefects arrived at the Archer Hall and quickly realized that they were still in the prefect uniform. Also, they were supposed to sit at a table that was smaller than the rest of them, so there was only space for the ten of them. All the tables in the room were round and as a general rule, the boys sat on one half of the room and the girls on the other side. Everyone was chatting eagerly, so Cici decided to take the lead. "Alright, for the most part, we don't even know each other's names or where we're from. I'll start. My name is Cecelia Miles, though everyone calls me Cici, and I'm from LA." She said. Sage went next, her chocolate eyes shining with unheard laughter. "I'm Sage O'Neil and I'm also from LA." She said. After that, a girl with red hair, green eyes, freckles and glasses spoke up. "I'm Nicole Kitsinger, but everyone calls me Nikki, and I'm from Alpena, Michigan." She said. A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes went after Nikki. "I'm Guinevere Harper, but I prefer Gwen, and I'm from Kissimmee, Florida." She introduced. A skinny girl with straight brown hair and brown eyes went next. "I'm Sabrina Albarn and I'm from Chicago. If you don't know what state that's in, you need your brain checked." She said, getting a chuckle from them all. Rory went after that, looking exactly like a male version of his sister with his dark brown hair and chocolate eyes. "I'm Rory O'Neil, Sage's brother, and I'm from LA." He said. A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes went. "I'm Nathan Pitten, but everyone calls me Nate, and I'm from Rapid City, South Dakota." He said. A boy with almost black hair and brown eyes went next. "I'm Harry Jay and I'm from Honolulu, Hawaii." He said. After him went a boy with Mexican roots. "I'm Jack Smith and I'm from New York City." He introduced. After him was a boy with short brown hair and light brown eyes. "I'm Kam Sax and I'm from Washington D.C. and like Sabrina said, if you don't know where that is, you need your brain checked." he said.  
Only seconds after Kam had finished, Headmistress Halvorsen and a man who had light brown hair and freckles entered the room and sat at the teacher's table. Immediately, all chatter ceased. "Good evening. I trust that you're all still alive?" Headmistress Halvorsen asked. In response, several students, including all ten prefects waved their hands in a 'so-so' manner. "Alright, first up, to all the first years that don't know what's going on, you've been told that we're actually Archer Academy and all those good things. That's true. During meals, the gals will eat in the Lunar Hall and the guys will eat in the Solar Hall. All you prefects, come up here, would ya?" Headmaster Alton requested. The prefects all went up without a word. "Gals, by the Headmistress." He ordered quietly once they were up there. The girls complied quickly and Headmaster Alton grinned. "These are your prefects. You will obey them without question and understand that they are fully authorized to discipline you. That goes to all students." He said, giving a group of older boys a dirty look, all of whom were pretending to shoot the prefects. When they didn't stop, Rory and Cici pulled out their pistols and trained them directly on the troublemaker's heads. They stopped.  
Rather than discipline them as expected, Headmaster Alton just chuckled and told the two that they did well. They were all dismissed to eat as there was a buffet set up. After dinner, they all headed to their dormitories which were absolutely gorgeous. There was a phone in the hall by their bedrooms that had a note taped to it. "All of you can use this to call your families free of charge." Cici read. Sabrina stayed in the hall and called her parents while the others found their bedrooms, identifiable by the luggage inside them.  
After about twenty minutes, Cici was told by Sage that it was her turn at the phone, as everyone else had already gone. She dialed the very familiar number and waited while rang. "Hello, Miles residence." A familiar, but unwelcome voice answered. "Ah, hi Megan." Cici greeted dully. "Cici! How's school?" The baby-sitter asked. "Classes don't start until Monday. Would you do me a favor and write down the number that I'm calling from and have my uncle call me when he gets home?" Cici requested. "Sure thing, hon. If you want, you can talk to your brother. I know he'd appreciate it." Megan said. "Yeah, I'd like that." Cici replied. In a few seconds, her little brother was on the line. "Cici!" He exclaimed. "That's right, little brother." Cici said quietly. "What's boarding school like? Did you make lots of friends? Is the food okay? What's your room like?" Mattie asked in quick succession. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down! To answer your questions, it's strange to not be at home, I made a few, yes and it's really plain at the moment." Cici answered. Mattie was about to say something, but was cut off. "I'm talking to Cici. Do you want a turn?" Mattie asked. "Cici?" Devon asked. "Hi, Uncle Devon." She said. "How is it in New York?" Devon asked his niece. "It's great. I'm a prefect already." Cici said. "Congratulations! How on earth did you manage that?" Devon asked. "I volunteered." Cici said honestly. "You volunteered and they made you a prefect?" Devon asked. "Yes. They have my records on file, they probably looked at past performances." Cici explained. "Alright, love. Now, I have to go. Someone has to feed the ravenous beast that is your little brother." Devon joked. "Of course, Uncle Devon. Would you mind feeding my fish while I'm gone? I'd ask Mattie to do it, but he'd be more likely to try to go fishing in the bowl." Cici said. "Not a problem, Cici. I'll talk to you later. I love you." Devon said. "I love you too." Cici said as she hung up the phone.  
"Aww." Sage crowed as she watched her friend. "Shut up, Sage." Cici muttered as she walked past Sage to get to her bedroom. "Hold on, Cici! What's your problem?" Sage asked. "Honestly, it mostly bothers me that Uncle Devon still hires Megan after everything I told him about her." Cici said. "Like how she'd leave in the middle of her shift and then would get back just before your uncle did?" Sage asked. Cici nodded irritably. "Well, there's gotta be something we can do." Sage said. "There's nothing that we can do from here. Even if I had Mattie tell him, Uncle Devon would just think that I told him to." Cici said. "Maybe we'll come up with something tomorrow. In the meantime, we should probably get to bed. I'm sure that at least someone will want to go to the chapel tomorrow morning." Sage said. Cici yawned and agreed.  
As it turned out, none of the prefects went to church, so they all slept in and happened to miss breakfast. Cici woke around 9:30, half an hour after breakfast ended. She got up and proceeded to make waffles for everyone, including the boys. Cici ran them over to the boys who were very grateful for the breakfast. "That's one way to wake up." Nikki mumbled, mouth half full of food. "We still need to vote on a leader." Cici said. "I vote for Cici." Sage said. "Cici." Nikki agreed. "Definitely." Gwen said. Sabrina raised her glass of orange juice in agreement. "Well, it looks like I've been outvoted." Cici said. "Who were you going to vote for?" Sabrina asked. "Probably Sage. Speaking of, you're my second." Cici said, pointing to Sage. "Okay." Sage agreed. "Guys! I figured out our codenames." Gwen exclaimed. "What are they?" Sage asked. "Alright, Sage is Rose, Cici is Iris, Nikki is Lily, I'm Violet and Sabrina is Carnation." She said. The girls shrugged and agreed.  
A knock at the door brought them from their thoughts. Sage hurried to get it and let the Headmistress in. "Here are your schedules. I would have given them to you at breakfast, but you weren't there." Headmistress Halvorsen scolded. "We've figured out a leader and codenames, ma'm." Gwen said. The Headmistress looked intrigued. "Cici is the leader and Sage is her second." Gwen said, then explained the codenames. "Interesting. Remember, ladies. I want to hear that you're studying hard." The Headmistress said.  
The next day, Cici was up first, so she went about waking the others. With an air horn. "You. Are. EVIL!" Sage shouted. "I ought to have you fired." Nikki muttered, still only half awake. "Too early." Sabrina muttered. "Good morning guys! How did you sleep?" Gwen asked perkily, turning four identical glares on her. "What? I'm just being polite." She muttered.  
It wasn't until their foreign language class that anything interesting happened. "Ah, so we have all but two of the prefects in this class. They had better be on patrol." Madame Boris, the teacher muttered. It was then that the prefect's radios crackled to life. "Requesting urgent back up!" Nikki's frightened voice came. The prefects stood in unison. "Prefect business." Cici said as she drew back her gun's slide. Ignoring Mdme. Boris' protests, they went in single file to where Nikki had broadcast from. The fairly small girl was being held at gunpoint.


	4. The First Emergency

All the prefects had their guns trained on the mystery attacker. "This is Iris requesting a lock down of the school and back up in the garden." Cici spoke into the com link. "Aw, what a shame. There was a chance that your little friend would live. Now, though..." The gunman dug his gun harder into Nikki's skull. "Wait! I'm the leader. If you're going to kill any one of us, it had better be me." Cici said bravely. The gunman gave a little snarl and shoved Nikki forward, grabbing Cici while he was at it. None of the prefects trusted their marksman skills enough to not hit Cici, so all they could do was keep their guns trained on them both. "Hey, Rose? Seeing as it's quite likely that I'm going to die here, I'm putting you in charge of coming up with a creative lie to explain the circumstances of my death to my uncle and brother. Okay?" Cici asked, wincing when the gun was shoved even harder against her skull.  
It was at that moment that help arrived in the form of all of the teachers. Two shots rang out. One hit the intruder in the stomach, forcing him to lose consciousness.. Cici felt a sharp, searing pain in her side before losing consciousness.  
"Iris!" Sage shouted, knees hitting the ground as she tried to cradle her best friend. Someone tried pulling her away, but Sage held on desperately, not caring that her clothes were being stained with blood. Cici's blood. She realized that her brother was beside her, trying to keep pressure on the heavily bleeding wound in Cici's side. Eventually, Sage was dragged away by her brother, while Cici was being picked up and taken away by the teachers. "Sage! Snap out of it!" Rory said, eventually slapping her to get her to think straight. "You have to remember that Cici was my best friend, too." Her brother reminded her quietly. Sage looked down, ashamed. "I know. I'm sorry, Rory." Sage apologized. "Now, I think you need to go talk to Nikki. She's over there blaming herself for what happened when it wasn't her fault and we both know it." Rory said. Sage got up and walked over to where Nikki was gripping her gun so tightly that her fingers were white.  
"Hey, it wasn't your fault." Sage said quietly. "Yes, it was. If I had been paying attention, I wouldn't have been taken by surprise. I'm not fit to be a prefect." Nikki said, throwing her gun onto the chair. "Of course you are! Now, I don't know about you, but the shooter is available for interrogation and I for one want to have a shot at this scum of the earth that shot our friend." Sage said, pulling Nikki in the direction of the door. All the others, who had been milling anxiously around in the girl's dormitory, stood up. "We're coming with. He shot Cici. We're a team. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. We're all going. Besides, I know how to mess with morphine dosage." Kam said. Sage nodded and they all headed toward the detention block.  
Not surprisingly, they were let in. When they reached the man's room, Sage checked to make sure that he was asleep before allowing Kam to work his magic on the morphine drip. It only took five minutes for him to be fully awake. Sabrina smirked and closed the door. This was going to be a very loud process.


	5. Visitors in the Hospital

Cici came to feeling very disconnected from the world. It was as though she was merely an observer. And then someone lowered the morphine dosage a little and it felt like her entire side was on fire. "Why would you do that?! Isn't it obvious that she's in pain?!" Sage hissed. "We don't want her getting addicted. Besides, she's waking up now." A nurse said. "Cici? I ate your cookies." Sage said. "You what?!" Cici demanded. "Yeah, she's awake. I promise, I didn't actually eat your cookies." Sage said, holding out a plastic bag of the cookies that were from lunch. "Cookies!" Cici exclaimed. "The wound was actually very minor. It'll be completely healed up in a few weeks. In the meantime, we informed your uncle that the school is undergoing renovations and you were hit in the side with a small chunk of metal that fell. You're actually at the local hospital because we figured that your uncle would want to visit you. We were right." The nurse said.  
It was only a few hours later that Devon arrived, Mattie in tow. He was surprised to find a young man that he didn't know sitting in front of the door to Cici's room. He had short brown hair and light brown eyes that promised trouble if you messed with him. "Who are you?" He asked. "Devon Miles and Matthew Miles." Devon said. "You got proof?" He asked. Before Devon could tell him off, Rory appeared and did it for him. "I'm sorry, Devon, Mattie. Just go right in. All of us prefects are really protective of her." Rory explained. Devon and Mattie went in and were surprised to find even more students in the room. "Alright, everyone out. Consider that an order." Cici said, green eyes sparkling. All seven students stood rigidly and saluted. "Yes Ma'm!" They chanted, then they all laughed.  
Once they had all filed out of the room and even left a few vacated chairs, Devon got a good look at Cici. She seemed much more tired than normal, and she gave off an air of fragility. "Is there a reason that you're giving them orders?" Devon asked. "Technically, I'm their commanding officer. We took a vote. I was outvoted." Cici said. "You elected a leader and you were outvoted?" Devon asked. "Yes. I was going to vote for Sage, but the other four girls voted for me." Cici said, shrugging. Without warning, she hurled a shoe at the door and a loud "OW!" was heard. "Try harder!" Cici called through the door.  
"I could hear them giggling." Cici said in response to Devon's questioning look. "Well, Michael and KITT will be here tomorrow. They're actually on a case in the area." Devon explained as Mattie started yawning. " I know a rugrat that needs to get to bed." Cici said. Mattie climbed onto Cici's bed and buried his face in her side. "I don't wanna leave you Sis." He mumbled. "Come on, Mattie. Cici's right, you do need sleep and I don't want you missing any more school than is necessary." Devon said. Unfortunately, Mattie still refused to move. Headmaster Alton entered the room and took a look at Mattie. "I see a future student." He sang. "You mean I could go to the same school as my big sister?" Mattie asked excitedly. "Well, one quality that we value is obedience. That means if a teacher, your uncle, your sister or an adult tells you to do something, you do it without question." The Headmaster said. Mattie quickly climbed off of Cici's bed and stood next to Devon. "I'm ready to go whenever you are." He said. As they left, Devon mouthed 'thank you' to the Headmaster. "Cute kid." He said to Cici. "Thanks. I get the feeling that what you just said will help a lot. Were you serious about him coming here?" Cici asked. "Yes I was. His name's been down since he was born, as was yours." He answered. "Of course it was." Cici muttered.  
True to Devon's word it wasn't until the next day that Michael and KITT showed up. "How are ya feeling, Kiddo?" Michael asked. Cici shrugged. "It feels like my entire right side is being slowly roasted over an open fire because they lowered the morphine dosage to keep me from getting addicted." Cici said. Michael winced slightly. "Yeah, that sounds like it hurts. I brought chocolate." Michael said. Cici thanked him for the gift and he lowered himself into one of the chairs. "These were not made for people my size." Michael muttered, causing Cici to outright laugh. "So who were those people?" Michael asked. "Oh, they're the other prefects. There are a grand total of 10 of us." Cici said. Michael smiled. "So the school's okay, then? The food's not poisonous or anything?" Michael asked. "Yeah, the food's great. All the people are, too. I really do like it here." Cici said. Michael smiled again. "Well, I'm glad to see that you're okay." Michael said. "As am I. I know that we were all very worried Cecelia." KITT said. "KITT, how many times do I have to tell you? It's just Cici." Cici said laughingly.


End file.
